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Stuffed Eggplants (Karnıyarık)

Another "certified Turkish" recipe from my mom: karnıyarık which literally translates as "split belly." Karnıyarık is widely made and dearly loved almost in every part of Turkey. But by going over the ingredients and cooking method, I believe it's from southeastern and eastern Mediterranean regions of Turkey. I must warn you; this is not a light dish, but it is absolutely fantastic and if you haven't had karnıyarık before, it will change your ideas on eggplant dishes. Enough said to advertise eggplant.

There are a couple things to be careful about when you're cooking with eggplants. Buy eggplants right before you cook and pick the firmer ones; eggplants tend to get soft in the refrigerator. And for this dish, do not use huge American eggplants. Try to find cute little ones or Asian eggplants.

-Peel eggplants leaving lengthwise stripes and then put them in salty water for 10 minutes. Dry them well and fry them as a whole in a deep pot with canola or corn or vegetable oil, whichever you're comfortable with. (Make sure oil is really hot before you place eggplants, otherwise eggplants will soak tons of oil)-Once they're fried, first soak the excessive oil by resting them on a paper towel, and then place eggplants on an oven dish.-In a deep frying pan, heat olive oil. Add onions and stir for 3-4 minutes.-Add ground meat. Cook until ground meat soaks all the juice it lets out.-Add diced tomato. Stir until cooked. Turn it off.-Add chopped parsley, salt, and pepper. Mix well.-With the help of two spoons, slit eggplants into two. But leave the tops and bottoms attached.-Stuff eggplants with ground meat mixture.-Place a slice of half moon shaped tomato and a green pepper on top of each split belly eggplant.-Pour 1 cup of hot water on top and bake them in preheated oven at 400F until green peppers are nicely baked.

Another fantastic way to use eggplant. Your blog is the second place I read recently that said not to put eggplant in the refrigerator. I didn't know that! I'd love to go to Turkey and eat some of this!

anonymous-yes, you can prepare it in advance and then just bake it. Prepare everything and stuff the eggplants. Place them in an oven safe dish. At this stage, you can refrigerate or even freeze them. When you need it, just bring it back to room temperature, put half moon shape tomato slices and green peppers on top, pour 1 cup hot water and bake.

Eggplants are tricky to cook; they take long time and are not delicious with every kind of cooking. Frying definitely brings out the best out of them. You cannot stuff them with the stuffing and bake afterwards; it would take a long time and as a result the stuffing would be very dry. If you bake them first and then stuff and bake again, it will be drier than the traditional version and taste completely different, because although roasted eggplants are delicious they are usually smashed and mixed with sauces or other roasted veggies. But in a karniyarik you would be eating big chunks of roasted eggplant which may not be as pleasant.

It's one of my favourite Turkish dishes. When I first made it, I had no idea what the real Turkish one tastes like. I was told to cook the eggplants first instead of frying and bake them after stuffing, so I did and my Turkish husband loved it. Since then he prefers karniyarik prepared like that. I also put the inside part of the eggplants and some pepper into the stuffing which was also a success. I hope once I will taste it in Turkey too.